The Chapman brothers first came to prominence as part of the YBA (young British artists) movement of the 1990s. They featured in the Royal Academy’s 1997 exhibition Sensation, showing a sculptural version of Goya’s Disasters of War. They returned to Goya’s work in 2003 causing outrage for painting their own ghoulish imagery over an original set of etchings.
My Giant Colouring Book returns to this method of working, this time appropriating join-the-dot drawings from a children’s picture book. The naïve innocence of the illustrations triggers a wild outpouring of fantastical imagery far removed from the original dot formations. The subjects include sabre-toothed owls, psychedelic grinning cats and bears trapped in the belly of the Loch Ness monster.
This series of 21 etchings, published by The Paragon Press, London in 2004, offers a fascinating introduction to the imaginations of two of Britain’s most inventive and subversive artists.
A Hayward Touring exhibition from Southbank Centre, London.
Kindly supported by Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood – Auctioneers and valuers.
